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To: bearshark who wrote (22119)	8/4/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 99985

Bearshark, couldn't find "trust fund" on a quick scan. at first glance the statements seem innocent enough. it's the underlying assumptions which i criticize. interestingly it is mentioned that the forecasts of ever-growing deficits turned out to be wrong, while no mention is made of the possibility that the forecasts of ever growing surpluses could very well suffer a similar fate. regards, hb

To: bearshark who wrote (22119)	8/4/1999 8:19:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 99985

"Including changes in non-marketable borrowings, this will result in an overall reduction of $87 billion this fiscal year in our publicly held debt. This is a record decline in publicly held debt." Social Security holds non-marketable securities. The increase in these offsets the decrease in publicly held debt. Note that it doesn't say that the changes are increases. They have no intent to buy in old bonds. It doesn't improve the government's cash flow since they have to pay the market value of higher yield securities that have likely appreciated in value due to the drop in market rates. Perhaps, they plan to 'buy' in the older Social Security-held bonds at par value, thus cheating the trust fund out of money.